Startups, E-commerce firms plan to step up campus hiring in 2019

The Class of 2019 is likely to be awash with job offers from e-commerce and startup companies, much more so than those who graduated earlier this year.

Fuelling the recruitment rush will be the likes of OYO, Amazon, ShopClues, Droom and Shadowfax - all flush with funds and aggressive on growth - which intend to step up campus hiring by up to 100%, even adding new institutes to their talent hunt to get the best on board.

Hiring will happen across multiple functions including operations, human resources, finance, business development, product management, marketing, sales, data science, software development and transformation, with annual pay going up to 30 lakh-plus, said companies and business schools.

OYO, which gained unicorn status in September after an $800-million funding round, is planning to double its campus intake in 2019 from the 200-plus it hired in 2018. Besides Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), it is also looking at Indian School of Business (ISB), XLRI-Xavier School of Management, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs).

"Given our expansion plans, candidates have the opportunity to gain international exposure when they join OYO," said Dinesh Ramamurthi, head of human resources at the hospitality company. "We are also offering a sign-on bonus to candidates at select campuses."

At Amazon, which has been among the top in summer placements for the Class of 2020, software engineers are being sought for cloud, computer vision, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

"India is a major growth story for Amazon. Since the inception of our university programme a few years back, our hiring has grown at 40% CAGR (compound annual growth rate)," said Raj Kaza, director talent acquisition, India, Amazon.

Aggressive hiring by startup and e-commerce companies during summer placements exceeded expectations, said Sapna Agarwal, head of career development services at IIM Bangalore. "Student interest is high, and so is the interest from the sector."

Companies are looking at campus hires adept at dealing with a fast-paced, agile environment. Amazon said it has a culture of "hiring superstars." Online automobile marketplace Droom, which raised $30 million in a Series E funding round in October, will be hiring specialists in technology, product management and marketing.

The key campuses Droom will be hiring from include IIFT, IIMs at Indore, Kashipur, Lucknow, Kozhikode and Ahmedabad, Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), ISB, as well as the IITs at Roorkee and Delhi, said Droom CEO Sandeep Aggarwal.

Startups have the appetite to grow, said Kanwal Kapil, dean of placements at Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon. Since expansion depends on the quality of manpower, they are keen to hire bright youngsters. "We will definitely see a greater percentage of the batch absorbed by this sector during final placements than last year," he said.

Logistics startup Shadowfax is planning to hire about 20 students from engineering and B-schools this year, compared with six last year. It is visiting IITs, BITS and NITs and has also tied up with a startup called AccioJobs, which is managing the campus placement process for several private colleges. Salaries range from Rs 7-8 lakh to Rs 18-20 lakh, depending on the role, said Siddarth Jain, corporate development associate.

Some startups are also widening the net to get more fresh recruits on board. Imarticus Learning managing director Nikhil Barshikar said it will hire 30 candidates in 2019, compared with six last time. Don Bosco Institute of Technology, Welingkar, Mithibai, HR College, KJ Somaiya, are among the institutes being targeted.